Stargate: Return of the Ancients, Season 2, Ep 2
by Aer-ki Jyr
Summary: Episode, "Siege" Year:2013
1. Chapter 1

Ryan Stevenson stood in Atlantis's holographic chamber monitoring the growing armada of Wraith ships surrounding the planet. They were clustered about in groups in far orbit around Lantea, outside of Atlantis's weapons' range, but still close enough to intercept any ships coming and going from the city with their crude hyperdrive destabilizers reaching out and blanketing the planet from somewhere deep within the Wraith Hive ships.

Their biological generators were inefficient, and took quite a long while to cycle up to full power, but they effectively cut off all hyperspace travel by preventing ships from forming a hyperspace window, while simultaneously pulling ships out of hyperspace that passed within range of the destabilizers. The Alterran version of the device was much more efficient, and could be used while in flight within hyperspace to track down moving ships, such as the _Tria_ had done with the Earth fleet, but even with their inferior technology the Wraith had successfully bottled up the planet once again.

Ryan had expected nothing less. Atlantis couldn't leave the system without physically running past the blockade and getting in the clear to activate its stardrive and jump to hyperspace…which it probably could if handled right, but that wasn't the objective. The Alterra wanted the city right where it was and the Wraith gathering overhead.

There were over 500 ships now, with more still on the way according to the city's long range sensors. Most of the fleet was made up of cruisers with skeleton crews, supporting 28 of their enormous Hive ships, as well as a scattering of other Wraith designs. Most of the cruisers were newly constructed, and Ryan figured the lack of crew was due to the lack of food within the galaxy. Not enough food meant the Wraith population couldn't explode upward as they had the potential to do…but ship production didn't require feeding on Humans, so in that regard, at least, they were living up to their reputation.

It'd been two and a half months since Atlantis had been visited by the first pair of cruisers, and with the Wraith's inferior hyperdrives their reinforcements had been dribbling in at a slow, but fairly constant rate. As it was the ships still on approach would take another two weeks to arrive, but it looked as though the flow was beginning to thin…and once it had settled out into whatever number of ships the Wraith deemed necessary to contain them, that was the time when the Alterra would introduce their version of warfare to the Wraith first hand.

Starring at the holographic map, Ryan felt the telepathic summons of one of his brothers. Matt wanted to see him.

_On my way_, he mentally replied. When he stepped off the control pedestal the glowing map disappeared and he headed off for a lower level of the main tower.

* * *

"_What have you got?_" Ryan asked Matt, his red-headed twin when he arrived in the primary med lab.

Matt activated a holographic display in the open area at the center of the room and walked up to it from the opposite side of Ryan. "_I've been studying the Wraith biotech and genetics in depth and have made some significant discoveries_."

"_Such as that weakness the_ Aurora's _Captain referred to?_"

"_No_," Matt said matter-of-factly. "_But I did discover several inaccuracies in the Lantean files_."

"_Such as?_" Ryan asked curiously.

"_The feeding process_," Matt said, highlighting several points in the Wraith genetic structure floating in the air between the twins, "_is not their only source of nourishment_."

Ryan crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "_I wondered about that. A six month feeding cycle didn't seem to cover the mass conversion during that time_."

"_No, not by a long shot. According to my research model, the Wraith absorb trace amounts of nutrients through physical contact with their environment. They also recycle carbon lost during respiration by absorbing carbon dioxide through the skin. That wouldn't factor into a planetary atmosphere, but_…"

"…_it would onboard the confined atmosphere within their ships_," Ryan finished for him.

"_Yes, and the Wraith should be able to absorb a lot of other compounds which, according to the Lantean reports, are present in both the atmosphere and structure of their ships_."

"_Present or produced?_" Ryan wondered.

"_Produced and secreted through the walls and floor_," Matt informed him. "_At a very slow rate that isn't easily detectable. I ran some tests on the Wraith debris you recovered and confirmed the theory. The interior living spaces of their ships are designed to gradually nourish the Wraith through direct contact, which is the quicker method, or by aerial absorption as the compounds build up and eventually form a thin fog within the atmosphere_."

"_Which was noted in several Lantean reports_," Ryan remembered.

Matt nodded. "_They concluded it was water vapor produced by altered atmospheric settings within the craft, but that appears not to be the case. There is water vapor present, which the Wraith also absorb through the skin, but there are also the trace nutrients present_."

"_Meaning that Wraith in the field need to feed more often than those living inside their ships_," Ryan surmised.

"_Probably_," Matt agreed. "_However, that's not the gist of the matter. When I started analyzing the array of nutrients I began to notice a pattern…look_," he said, altering the hologram. "_Do you see it?_"

Ryan studied the compounds closely and tried to find the pattern. "_No, I don't_."

"_It took me a while too_," Matt admitted. "_See if this helps_."

He highlighted 18 out of the 26.

Suddenly Ryan got it. "_Not from the seed species_."

"_Bingo_," Matt said, taking slight pleasure in being one step ahead of his progenitor.

"_The Lanteans determined that the Wraith evolved from an accidental mixing of a native creature on Ijara and the seed species that they placed there_," Ryan recalled. "_These compounds are required by that species, I take it?_"

"_All of them are_," Matt clarified. "_The seed species just happens to share 8 of them_."

Ryan tilted his head to the side in thought. "_I take it that's significant?_"

"_I thought it might be, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I asked Andara to take a look, now that the Feriorla situation has stabilized. She is as brilliant as she is beautiful_."

"_I know_," Ryan reminded him. He was the one that'd recruited her after all.

"_No, no_," Matt admonished him. "_You don't know the half of it. Look at this…_"

The hologram shifted again, this time showing a translucent image of a Wraith body with extraneous diagrams floating around in bunches describing the feeding process.

"_Andara pinpointed the crucial element that I'd been searching for, then helped me through the permutations. The Lanteans were wrong about the origins of the Wraith_."

"_Big surprise_," Ryan said sarcastically.

"_According to their records, Ijara was seeded with the base species, then left alone for 120,000 years before the Lanteans did a comprehensive survey of all seeded worlds in the galaxy, at which time they found a large population of primitives advancing at the expected rate. They left them alone to continue developing for another 120,000 years before repeating the process_."

"_And continued on for well over two million years, I know_," Ryan said, unnecessarily reminding Matt that the two of them shared nearly identical memories, including the Lantean files that Ryan had read before he'd cloned himself.

"_But…_" Matt continued, "_the inhabitants of Ijara, when questioned after the Wraith first emerged, told the Lanteans stories of creatures in the forests of the dark side of the planet that had fed upon those foolish enough to venture into the dark areas. Their entire recorded history, short as it was, contained these stories and the Lanteans suspected, based on their research of Wraith physiology, that these creatures must have begun feeding upon the inhabitants within the first 120,000 year period in order to evolve their combined genetic structure into that of present day Wraith_."

"_Unfounded speculation_," Ryan agreed," _but not categorically wrong_."

"_With the planet's marginal rotation_," Matt reminded him, "_and only moonlight to sustain the forests, the intermediary forms of the evolving Wraith were never seen, or so the Lanteans assumed to make their theory fit, but a more comprehensive analysis of their genetic structure indicates that the synthesis of the seed species genetic code with the native creatures' is considerably faster than they estimated_."

Ryan's chin rose a hair. "_So it happened more recently than they suspected?_"

Matt shook his head. "_We don't think it happened at all_."

"_What did Andara find?_"

"_This_," Matt highlighted a small component in the feeding process.

Ryan's eyes widened. "_Adaptive genetics?_"

"_Not quite_," Matt said ominously. "_This is something entirely new to us_."

Ryan didn't say anything for a moment and let that sink in. The Alterra had been around for a very long time, and even given the infinite diversity of the universe it was rare when they encountered something altogether new.

"_Go on_," Ryan urged, looking closely at the data.

"_We think Ijara is a red herring_," Matt stated flatly. "_The Lanteans may have first encountered the Wraith there, and there may have been a native lifeform that fed off the seed species in a similar fashion to the Wraith, but they're not related, at least not as the Lanteans believed. The Wraith homeworld must be somewhere else, and they traveled to Ijara_."

Ryan frowned. That potentially put a kink in their battle plans. The Wraith had defended Ijara almost religiously, never allowing the Lanteans to get close to the planet after first contact.

"_Any ideas where they came from?_"

"_Not through the gate network_," Matt said categorically. "_So it should be somewhere within the region around the Ijara system, but that isn't the big problem_."

"_Problem?_" Ryan asked.

"_According to our research, the Wraith absorbed the seed species genetic code within a year…perhaps sooner_."

The intense, relaxed look drained from Ryan's face. "_What?_"

"_I know. I reacted the same way_," Matt said, adjusting the hologram again. "_These elements, we think, belong to the actual Wraith species_," he said, bringing up segments of their genetic code. "_They appear to incorporate other species' genetics into their own through the feeding process, absorbing their physical attributes, intelligence…and Andara believes some of their memories, though I haven't figured that one out yet_."

Ryan stared at the wall for a moment, then summed the situation up pithily. "_They are what they eat_."

"_Seems so_," Matt confirmed. "_They Wraith became their current incarnation when they fed upon the seed species, but the transformation was almost instantaneous. It wasn't a matter of evolution_."

"_And when they fed on the Lanteans_…" Ryan added.

"…_they grew even stronger, and more intelligent, and if Andara is right_…"

"…_absorbed their technical knowledge_," Ryan finished as a lot of loose threads began to connect. "_The Wraith plasma canons. They didn't develop them on their own, or reverse engineer them from captured ships…they absorbed the knowledge from their victims and incorporated it into their biotech_."

"_Ingenious sons of bitches, aren't they?_" Matt noted.

"_Do they have to feed?_" Ryan asked.

Matt shook his head. "_No. Our initial assumption was correct. With their knowledge of biology, they could easily reactivate the latent digestive systems they obtained from the seed species' genetics._"

"_The one called Michael did just that, according to Weir's log_."

"_He went farther than that_," Matt added. "_He stripped away his ability to feed off lifeforms, thus locking his genetic code in place. Now, his base Wraith code was still there, dormant and able to be reactivated in the future, but it was relatively inaccessible_."

"_Relatively?_"

Matt shook his head appreciatively. "_From what Andara told me, their genetic code is extremely aggressive. It cannot be stripped away or altered, it will always regenerate. Michael just locked it down, I'd guess_."

"_By Wraith, you mean their core genetics?_" Ryan asked. "_They can still change forms if they feed off different species?_"

Matt nodded. "_We assume they got stronger when they fed off the Lanteans…and smarter. Probably a lot smarter than they are now_."

"_When they ran out of Lanteans they reformed to the Human genetic code?_"

"_Not with a single feeding, but yes_," Matt confirmed. "_They are what they eat. The more advanced the species, the stronger they get…the more primitive, the weaker and dumber they get…while maintaining some characteristics from their core attributes_."

"_Then the Wraith Sheppard found marooned_…"

"…_had been eating Lanteans as well as Humans_," Matt continued. "_It's also possible that they gain a boost from cannibalism. Another of Andara's theories. You remember Weir's report on Teyla?_"

Ryan raised an eyebrow. "_The Wraith experiments?_"

Matt nodded. "_She thinks that Wraith was trying to upgrade the Humans with a touch of their own genetic code, making them more advanced, which would in turn make the Wraith more advanced when they fed off them_."

"_To make up for the lack of Lanteans_," Ryan guessed.

"_Exactly_."

Ryan nodded as he made another connection. "_That's why the Wraith don't eat anything other than Humans. It would downgrade them even further_."

"_We don't know that for a fact_," Matt argued. "_There may be other forms of Wraith out there._"

"_I meant what Sheppard told me about his Wraith prisoners_," Ryan explained. "_He tried to feed them other lifeforms, but the Wraith wouldn't touch them_."

Matt's eyes narrowed. "_Sheppard tried to feed him lifeforms?_"

"_Yeah, I wasn't too keen on that myself_," Ryan acknowledged. "_We had a chat about that and I think he's squared away now._"

"_Still_…"

"_He was Human then, with his transformation ongoing I've noticed his eyes opening to a lot of things. I don't think he'll be inclined to sacrifice living beings again_."

"_Anyway_," Matt said, waving the tangent off, "_if Andara is right, and the Wraith do absorb at least some knowledge from their victims, they could know quite a bit about our technology…at least as much as the Lanteans did. And it explains why their language is a derivative of Lingara...and how they also know the old common tongue_."

"_Wait a minute_," Ryan said as another thought struck him. "_You're saying that the Wraith absorbed the Lanteans' telepathic and telekinetic abilities?_"

"_That's what worries me_," Matt said, getting to the main point. "_We know that most of the Lanteans didn't possess strong Edeva skills on the whole, but individual Wraith may have assimilated those abilities from select individuals…though they would have lost them after several feedings on Humans._"

"_I see the problem now_," Ryan declared. 'Edeva' was an Ancient term that didn't have an English translation, but it referred to their energy-based 'super powers' including telekinesis, telepathy, charge redistribution, exterior healing, etc…and the Alterra had far more Edeva skills than the Lanteans could ever dream of.

"_If the Wraith feed off us, or another more advanced species_," Matt said aloud, "_they'll become even more dangerous_."

"_I don't suppose they fed off the Vanir?_" Ryan worried.

"_Now there's an ugly thought…_" Matt agreed, "_though they wouldn't be a threat in the physical sense. Still, I wouldn't want to see what kind of biotech they'd come up with given Asgard level intelligence_."

"_Nor do I_," Ryan concurred. "_How much memory transfer does Andara theorize?_"

"_Random, with significant volume_," Matt said evenly. "_She doesn't think they can target specific memories, fortunately, but with subsequent feedings of individuals with equal knowledge, they're bound to accumulate a significant amount_."

"_And they retain these memories after feeding on other species?_" Ryan asked.

"_She thinks so_," Matt said, unsure. "_But with diminished intelligence there's no way of knowing if they'll be able to use it_."

"_Their biotech is semi-independent, isn't it?_" Ryan said.

Matt's eyes widened. "_You're right. I should have seen that. Coupled with a database they can maintain and pass on the knowledge even if they're incapable of fully understanding it_."

"_What have you discovered with regards to their telepathic connections?_"

"_Base attribute_," Matt said with certainty. "_Probably altered by the feedings to give them the ability to influence Human minds._"

"_I figured that_," Ryan said, putting his hands on his hips. "_Any other useful insights?_"

"_No, but I'd just like to underscore the danger of the Wraith feeding on us. They could become our bane…in ways I don't even care to speculate_."

"_Well that's not going to happen_," Ryan said firmly, "_for no other reason than there aren't enough of us to go around._"

"_Still_," Matt cautioned, "_one of us given to a queen could reproduce hundreds of Wraith before she'd need to feed again. And then add in their cloning ability_…"

"_Point taken_," Ryan noted.

"_We have to make certain we wipe _all_ of them out_," Matt insisted. "_Including their progenitors, or this could happen all over again_."

Ryan bit his lip. "_Possibly. We'll have to assess the progenitors when we find them. The present incarnation of the Wraith are smart enough to fix their feeding problem and haven't…we can't make the same assumption of the others if their intelligence is considerably lower_."

Matt tilted his head thoughtfully. "_Hadn't considered that. Either way their feeding ability has to go._"

"_Agreed_," Ryan said, nodding his complete agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam climbed the spiral staircase up to the briefing room in the now deserted Cheyenne Mountain complex. With the stargate gone, the SGC had been temporarily disbanded until appropriate terms were reached with the I.O.A. to use their 'neutral' facility in Egypt. On top of that, there were still many ruffled feathers over how the I.O.A. had acquired the stargate.

Carter and Mitchell had returned to Earth and relayed their tale to the temporary U.S. representative in Egypt, who had listened intently, made no promises as to repercussions against the Chinese government, then quickly arranged them transportation back to the States. Both Colonels had been given temporary leave until their positions in the new offworld operation was determined.

Cam and Sam had spent the first week together, discussing their future and mourning their friends. Teal'c had remained on Dakara, assuming his new duties as First Prime. He was given a new symbiot and had his golden emblem of Apophis removed in a quick ceremony, with Mitchell and Carter in attendance, before they had to return to Earth. Teal'c wished them both well, adding that given current circumstances he didn't think he'd be visiting Earth again. Apparently he was taking Hailey and Vala's deaths hard, and in typical Jaffa fashion he placed blame squarely on the Chinese, and by extension all those who enabled their misdeeds…

After their week on Earth together, Cam went off to visit his family while Carter lost herself on the road, taking an extended vacation across the country, hopping from one national park to another, hotel to hotel, and in some cases campsite to campsite. She didn't feel like staying put for very long, as if moving from place to place would help her escape her emotions. Not only had they lost their teammates, but Jack had also disappeared offworld…and she had no way of finding him.

Truth be told, if she knew where he was she'd run off with him at the drop of a hat. She was as disgusted and disillusioned with her fellow Earthlings as Teal'c was. Cam still seemed optimistically hopeful, but she knew part of his demeanor was just for show. He was still simmering too, but he wasn't going to dwell on it.

Carter however was. She'd been around the block too many times to just pass this off. She'd always been fervently loyal to her country and her planet, but the harsh truth was that Earth, whom she'd fought and bled for on god knows how many times, had gone to the darkside.

Up until now she'd never let herself believe that. Sure, there were bound to be rotten eggs in every chicken coop, but lately it seemed everything that Earth did had some political, self-centered agenda to it. Gone were the days where they went out into the galaxy to explore and help people…now it was Earth that was victimizing others.

And she'd been a part of it. That's what galled her the most. She'd become one of them…up until Captain Stevenson had ran her head through the wood chipper. He'd inadvertently done her a favor, painful as it had been, and it sickened Sam at the very thought of where she'd be right now if he hadn't shoved her rationalizations back in her face.

And now she was stuck. She couldn't run off looking for O'Neill. She couldn't redeem herself within a stargate program that no longer existed. She couldn't do anything but play civy and wait for her hair to turn gray.

Two months into her cross country road trip, however, she did receive a phone call from her superiors. They hadn't said what for, but she'd been recalled from her leave and ordered to report to the old SGC for further orders.

When she arrived a lone guard stood waiting for her at the entrance. He escorted her into the base up until he got around to telling her where she was going, at which point she dismissed the Sergeant. She knew her way around the base better than anyone.

When Sam reached the top of the stairwell she noticed a large group of uniformed officers seated around the briefing room table…all of whom turned to look at her.

She cleared her voice. "Colonel Samantha Carter, reporting as ordered," she said, coming to a stop and saluting.

"Colonel," a tall man wearing a civilian suit said as he stood, acknowledging her salute with one of his own. "Welcome back," he said, pointing to the table's only empty chair.

Sam nodded, recognizing the man, but a bit confused by the salute. "Thank you, Mr. Vice President."

The VP continued standing until she'd seated herself, then lowered himself back into his chair at the opposite end of the table.

"Two weeks ago," he began without preamble, "the Beta site reported a contagion affecting all of their personnel. The planet was quarantined. Three days later, when we finally got a med team through the stargate," he said with frustration, "they were all dead."

Sam's eyes widened.

One of the Generals on her left tilted his head in her direction. "It was the Aschen."

"The Aschen?" Carter asked, blinking.

"We retrieved the small probe that delivered the bioweapon," the General continued. "It was the same type as used against Earth."

"Did they take the planet?" Sam asked.

"No, they didn't," the Vice President said. "Once the contagion ran its course, we reclaimed the Beta site. There's been no further sign of the Aschen."

Carter frowned, thinking. "Did they take anything?"

The Vice President looked at his Generals and raised an eyebrow.

"Not that we've found," General Higgins said grumpily.

Carter considered that, then nodded her head as she came to a conclusion. "It was a shark bump," she said meekly.

"I'm sorry," the Vice President said, "I'm not familiar with that terminology."

"Umm…it's sort of like prodding us for a reaction," Carter awkwardly explained. "They hit us then study our response, usually as a prelude to future action. Sharks have been known to do that before they attack divers."

"A shark bump…ok, I get it. So they'll hit us again? That's your conclusion, Colonel?"

"More of a guess, Mr. Vice President," Carter hedged. "But I'd say so."

"You can address him as 'sir,' Colonel," General Howard told her. "He's now the Commander in Chief of the military."

"Excuse me?" Carter asked, her jaw dropping.

The Vice President raised his hand to stop and further conversation. "In the event that the President is removed from office, the Vice President assumes the Presidency. The Congress can't remove Cornwallis without telling the public why, which would require revealing the stargate program. That's not something we're prepared to do, but we're not going to let treason go either. Unofficially I've taken control of the Presidential powers. Cornwallis will remain a figurehead, but with no decision making ability whatsoever."

Carter's eyes widened a bit further. "And he agreed to this?"

"Congress didn't give him a choice," the Vice President told her. "The military supported them, as did I. With no one following his orders, Cornwallis lost all control. Eventually he relented and agreed to play the role in order to maintain national security, but he's completely out of the loop."

"Wow…" Carter commented.

"So as far as we're concerned," Howard said, pointing at the VP, "he is the President."

Carter nodded. "Yes, sir."

"In light of this recent attack," the unofficial President continued, "the Congress and I have unanimously decided on a new course of action regarding offworld affairs…at least the portion of Congress with security clearance. That's why you're here."

Sam nodded, but didn't say anything.

"As of three days ago, we declared war on the Aschen."

Carter's breath caught in her throat. "Really?"

The CIC nodded. "The other nations reluctantly agreed on principle, but are only committed to the defense of Earth and their individual colonies. We, however, aren't just going to sit around waiting to get hit again. We're going on the offensive…when we're able to down the road. Normally a declaration of war by the congress would result in a massive shift of our country's economy towards war production…but that's not possible without breaking national security."

"To that end," he continued, "our military buildup is going to commence offworld. Since we no longer have exclusive control of the stargate, our offworld operations are going to be run out of a new Stargate Command located offworld. All transit to Earth, according to a recent I.O.A. edict, will come directly from one of Earth's colonies for security reasons. All offworld teams will have to gate to friendly territory before being allowed to return to Earth."

General Pervis leaned over towards Sam. "Since they've got the gate, the I.O.A. has been giving orders on everything."

"Yes they have," the VP said. "And we're not standing for it anymore. We're cutting all but the most basic ties with the I.O.A. We are no longer producing technology for them, nor supplying them with personnel. They will allow us limited travel through the stargate in order to prevent us from trying to bring another gate here, which I've been told is inadvisable because it wouldn't work anyway."

"It would override their gate because of the DHD," Carter offered. "But there's nothing to stop them from doing the same thing, at which point it becomes a programming war for dominance."

"Thus," the VP continued after a nod, "we are preparing to run all our offworld operations without the benefit of a planetary gate. We'll travel by ship if we have to, but we're finished with the I.O.A."

"Surprised?" Higgins asked when some of the color seemed to drain from Sam's face.

"Well…to be honest, yes, I am."

"You disapprove?" the General pressed.

"No…not at all. I just didn't expect it to happen given the political situation."

The VP leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table and starred Carter down. "We're done playing politics with the security of Earth. I know what it's like out there, Colonel. I know how vulnerable we really are and how stupidly we've handled past situations. We'd all be dead ten times over if not for you and your teammates…and most recently the intervention of the Jaffa."

Carter nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"No," the VP shook his head. "Thank you. You and the others at Stargate Command have been the voice of reason ever since the program was founded. It's been idiotic politicians and blowhard military brass that have caused most of the trouble," he said, catching a few glares from his current military brass. "We're done playing games. As of now, you are in full command of all our offworld operations."

"Me?" Carter asked, stunned.

The VP nodded. "With an immediate promotion to a Five Star General."

"What?" Sam gasped.

"We're at war," the VP insisted. "You're the most experienced officer we have. I would have liked to bring O'Neill back, but we haven't been able to track him down and we can't wait. You are in command of our war effort, General. As it is, you're also the only person remaining on Earth that has had personal contact with the Aschen. You saw them launch the first bioweapon at us through the stargate with no provocation whatsoever. You know what we're up against, and short of O'Neill I can't think of anyone better to protect our planet, and our country, from our offworld enemies."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked again, thinking she'd not heard right.

The VP smiled. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"Sir?" she asked, not catching his meaning.

"During the first year of operation here," he said, indicating the SGC. "There was a skirmish offworld. SG-5 was under Goa'uld attack and SG-1 and SG-3 was sent in as relief. You rescued a Major Kerry who'd received a staff blast in the chest," he said, pointing to the spot on his upper right pectoral muscle.

Carter's eyes widened again. "That was you?"

"Yes," Kerry said. "I never returned to active duty, and eventually made my way into politics because I knew how serious the threat we faced was, and how we couldn't trust the politicians to do anything right. Now that I'm the one calling the shots, with the congress in agreement out of fear of the Aschen, I'm giving you free reign to do what's needed, in your own way, with no interference from the I.O.A. or our own government."

Carter stared at him for a moment. "You've got to be joking."

"No, I'm dead serious," Kerry said, leaning back in his chair. "But there's more than just the threat the Aschen pose. We also have to consider the possibility of WWIII here on Earth…or more likely, out amongst our colonies."

"What do you mean?" Carter asked.

"Since we lost possession of the stargate, the other nations have become almost giddy with the promise of new lands to colonize. It's as if the clock was turned back to 1492 when the Americas were discovered and Europe set loose on a colonizing binge. The same thing is happening now, and I can see no way for us to stop it. When we had possession of the stargate they had to go behind our back to do it…now, there's no restrictions on them at all, and the I.O.A. is intent on playing kingpin and riding rough shot over everyone. A few of the rules they've set up include treating Earth as neutral ground, which everyone is honor-bound to protect, but they're 'giving' free passes to the individual countries to do whatever they want on their own colonies, which are being parceled out by the I.O.A. Any confrontations between nations are the business of no one else, so long as they keep their disputes away from Earth."

Carter's jaw dropped the lowest it'd go. "They're anticipating civil war?"

"So it would seem. Their focal point is on preserving Earth. As for everything else it's a free for all…with the one exception being they're forbidding claiming of worlds with indigenous populations. They don't want another incident with the Jaffa. Also, every nation has to petition the I.O.A. to be granted the rights to establish new colonies, as well as declare all offworld bases for public knowledge."

"How do they plan to enforce that?" Carter asked, thinking through the ramifications.

"Setting us at each other's throats," Kerry said candidly. "We've already denounced the I.O.A. treaty and made our intentions clear. We've sort of settled on a mutual disagreement while acknowledging that Earth needs to be protected. We have, however, pulled out of all 304 contracts with the other nations. They'll have to make their own spaceships from now on."

"So…" Carter said carefully. "You're telling me that since we can't stop this colonization push, our only option is to get out in front of it?"

"Bingo," he said, pointing a finger at her in congratulations.

"All the while fighting the Aschen and who knows who else?"

"I'm sure you see the intricacies of the problem we face…and the urgent need for genuine leadership," he underscored.

Sam nodded slowly, taking it all in. "I'll want Colonel Mitchell as my second in command."

"You needn't ask, Carter," Kerry said with some familiarity. "You're in command. You can have whoever you want. We'll supply you with as much equipment and resources as we can from Earth, but down the road you're going to have to rely on offworld resources."

"Meaning the establishment of more mining sites and setting up offworld factories and shipyards," Sam said, catching on quickly.

Kerry nodded, smiling. "I trust you can take it from here?"

"Yes, sir," she said formally.

Kerry pointed at the assembled staff. "These officers are at your disposal. They'll help you set up everything you need. Oh…one small side note, Carter. Is there any chance of getting Teal'c back?"

Sam cringed. "He's already been accepted as Bra'tac's First Prime. Knowing Teal'c he won't go back on that commitment."

"Our loss," Kerry said as he stood. "Cheyenne Mountain is yours until we can get an offworld SGC up and running. The _Phoenix_ and _Icarus_ are our only two operational warships. We have to leave at least one of them here at all times until the British 304 is ready for operation, which we're keeping, by the way. But you know as well as I do, that even if we had all four ships here in defense of Earth, that won't be enough against another Aschen assault."

"Assuming the Russians keep theirs here," Carter added, nodding. "The 304s will be more effective offworld until we can establish a proper defense of Earth."

"Yes, I forgot to mention that," Kerry added. "We're discussing the establishment of a network of defense satellites with the I.O.A., but even if they refuse to play ball we're going to work on the defenses ourselves. That will _not_ be one of your responsibilities."

Carter nodded. She was getting everything away from Earth. Home defense would be allotted to someone else. While she hoped they got someone competent for the job, not having to defend Earth directly was a huge load off her shoulders…not that the job she'd just been given was going to be that easy. She was being given the front lines, while Earth would eventually, hopefully, become safe territory.

"Understood, sir."

Kerry walked around the table and stopped next to Carter, who stood to meet him. He shook her hand. "You have no idea how much safer I feel knowing that you'll be out there watching over our asses. Good luck. If there's anything that they can't get for you, feel free to call me, day or night."

"Thank you," Carter said as he released her hand.

"Have at it," Kerry said, waving them back to the table as he left the room. A pair of secret service guards stepped out of what used to be Landry's office to escort him back to the surface.

"Ok," Carter said, sitting back down and taking a long, deep breath. "Let's start with the basics. Do we have a proposed site for the new SGC?"

* * *

"Dr. Weir," one of the Asgard at the control consoles calmly called out to her, "the city's sensors are detecting a wave of incoming objects."

Elizabeth walked over behind the small alien. "What kind of objects?"

"Asteroids," it said evenly. "Some of which are quite large."

"How long?" she asked.

"Twelve minutes, thirty two seconds."

"Alert the Alterra. We need someone in the control chair."

"Done," another Asgard said, having already sent the message.

"Start powering up the city's weapons," Elizabeth ordered. "And sound general quarters."

One of the other six Asgard in the control room activated the city's general warning klaxon, tinged with slightly altered harmonics to indicate the general quarters status.

* * *

Out on Atlantis's number three pylon Sheppard and O'Neill were lazily hitting golf balls out into the ocean when the city's shield suddenly rose up over their heads. Below them the water receded as it was pushed down by the ventral shields as they too extended. Atlantis bobbed a bit with the increased buoyancy as a loud, four tone warning sounded on the city's exterior hull…the signal to return indoors.

"What's up?" O'Neill asked as Sheppard closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Come on," Sheppard said a moment later, grabbing their stash of golf balls and clubs. "They need us in the control chairs."

"Wraith I assume," O'Neill asked as he ran behind Sheppard, carrying his own set of clubs.

"They decided to hit a few balls our way," John said as they approached the nearest door to the city's interior. "We've got to knock them down before they get here."

"Tell me where to go," O'Neill said, completely serious for once in his life.

"I'll show you," Sheppard said as they darted inside.


	3. Chapter 3

John and Jack left their clubs and bucket of balls in the hallway just inside the entrance and jogged their way to the nearest transporter. From there they made their way to the closest of the four chair rooms.

"Sit down," John said from the doorway, "plug in, and wait for instructions. You can talk to Ryan through the chair's systems."

"Alright," Jack said as Sheppard ran off. The next closest chair was in another building. The Alterra had added the three extras in different locations just in case the city was damaged and the primary chair was lost, which meant it would take a couple more minutes for Sheppard t o 'plug in.'

Jack spun the blue/white chair around and sat down. He concentrated and the chair reclined…

Suddenly he was aware of Atlantis's weapons systems powering up, her deployed shields, and numerous subsystems all at his disposal, yet shared with another control chair. Matt Stevenson was already active in the system.

_What now? _Jack thought.

In response Ryan's 'voice' transmitted through the chair interface.

"Get the drones moving," he told him as O'Neill noticed targeting information continuing to pop up on the incoming asteroids. Ryan was tagging targets from the 'war room.' "Keep them out of the line of fire and ready to pick up the pieces. Matt's got the big guns, and Sheppard will stand by with the Pesqua if we need them."

_Got it_, O'Neill mentally replied as he searched for the Alterran drones. He found clusters stacked on the surface of Atlantis's three primary pylon/piers.

"Wakey, wakey," Jack said aloud as the sheets of 4.5 meter square cubes activated. In his mental HUD all the little cubes turned green.

"Up," he said, and the top rows of the stacks started to drift towards the city's shield.

"I'm in," Sheppard's voice announced. "Pesqua standing by."

"Whatever makes it to the atmosphere is yours," Ryan said.

The silver cubes passed through the city's shields as three long streams of them formed, heading up to space. Jack picked a rendezvous spot in orbit and they scurried up to it, unfolding into what looked like mechanical 'spike balls' in the process. O'Neill started their capacitors charging as the first yellow/green beam shot up from one the city's four primary _Joktala_, or beam cannons.

O'Neill watched through the city's sensors as the thin beam reached high above the atmosphere and impacted the largest of the 100+ asteroids at a range of 196 dekmas, or 512 miles in the Ancient measurement. It took and caught the beam for a moment, then the energy weapon burst out the back side of the asteroid, shattering it into several dozen pieces before the beam abated.

"Whoa," O'Neill commented.

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Sheppard commented to the mental part of that exclamation that got transmitted through the chair.

The asteroid debris began to expand outwards like a halo and suddenly Jack had deployment points appearing in his HUD, courtesy of Ryan.

O'Neill concentrated and split up his 160 drones into five groups and moved them around the firing conduit to their deployment points, which were moving parallel to the incoming asteroids. He accelerated them even further to catch up in time before the rocks hit the atmosphere.

Another two Joktala lances cracked the next biggest asteroids. A few seconds later the fourth fired, then there was a few seconds delay while the first cannon recharged. Matt worked through the asteroids, largest to smallest at range while O'Neill's drones moved into position.

"Have at it fellas," Jack said when he gave the drones their attack command.

The semi-autonomous computers in the drones began their attack, firing single spheres of red energy at the pieces of rock flying towards Atlantis, which were spreading out into a large cone from the detonations. The drones, essentially unmanned fighters, busted up the bigger pieces with the concentrated blasts, then waited to recharge, fired, and waited again.

When the pieces began to shrink in size, O'Neill ordered the drones to pull less charge. As a result the spheres they were firing shrank, but their firing rate increased. They chewed up most of the asteroids, but some large pieces still managed to make their way into the atmosphere…where the drones broke off.

Sheppard sat, waiting and watching as his fellow Alterra made short work of the Wraith asteroids, but some of the debris was getting through…which meant they were his responsibility now.

The city's pesqua holds opened up and several long, but thin streams of the glowy remote-controlled missiles rose up out of the city, then fanned out as John sent them towards individual targets. Atlantis could probably survive some hits from the smaller pieces, but at the speed they were entering the atmosphere they were carrying a significant amount of kinetic energy. Too much would breach the shields, but even if they missed the city they'd create devastating waves in the ocean, and Sheppard didn't feel like having the city flipped over by the impact concussion.

Not to mention there were other lifeforms on Lantea besides the Ancients and their seed species. A brief glance at the sensors confirmed that there were many of the 'talking whales' that had previously warned them of dangerous solar activity. If the asteroids hit the ocean around Atlantis, hundreds of them would be killed within the 200 mile radius.

Not going to happen on John's watch. Besides, Atlantis owed them.

The few hundred pesqua zipped up, boring through their targets then quickly curling around and passing through others, putting holes in the remaining pieces that the atmospheric friction clawed at, further chewing them up. After several dozen passes the drones finally detonated within some of the remaining pieces, but by now there were thousands of small fragments that were going to hit the ocean's surface. They were no longer a threat to Atlantis, but they were going to make one hell of a meteor shower.

Sheppard, now free of controlling the pesqua, tracked the debris a few dekmas above the city, meaning less than thirty seconds to impact. He mentally grabbed control of the city's shields and disconnected the upper shield from the lower shield.

The bottom edge of the top hemisphere of the shield expanded out over the ocean, lifting up to an almost flat angle and spreading out…and out…and out…

The asteroid debris impacted all over the shield, small bits here and there, making quite the fireworks display for the Wraith observing from high orbit, but very little was visible from inside the city. Only a few tiny pieces came down on top of Atlantis…the rest were widely spread out over the ocean.

"Nice," Ryan said through the link. "Bring the drones back down and pack them up."

_On it_, Jack replied.

"Ryan, take a look at this," Matt said, highlighting several of the Wraith ships.

They were gathering more asteroids.

"They think they're going to have better luck with more?" Sheppard asked.

"No," Ryan advised. "They accomplished their mission."

_Which was what?_ Jack asked as he monitored the returning drones.

"To make us expend ammo," Matt answered.

"The pesqua," John said, understanding.

"Jack, I'll make sure the drones get tucked back in," Matt said. "You and Sheppard can go back to whatever you were doing."

_Thanks_, O'Neill thought back. _How long until the next round?_

"At least a day," Ryan answered. "We may have to suffer another round or two before the rest of the Wraith ships get here. Then we'll be ready to make our move."

"Call us when you need us," Sheppard said. "Meet you back on the pier."

O'Neill felt John disconnect, so he did as well. The chair powered down and sat him back up. He stretched his arms up over his head. "Well, that was fun."

* * *

Two days later the last of the approaching Wraith ships finally arrived, bringing the count to 718, including 37 Hive ships. They had clustered together into 18 battle groups spaced around the planet, with small groups of cruisers moving about in between, ready to pounce on any ship attempting to run the blockade.

In Atlantis's gateroom Ryan waited patiently for the last piece of the puzzle to arrive, which came in the form of an incoming wormhole from Dracona.

Once the event horizon formed, Andara and Phil stepped through arm in arm, and Ryan walked out to meet them.

"_Is everything set?_" Phil asked his twin.

"_We're ready when you are_," Ryan said, nodding at Andara. "_We need you in one of the control chairs._"

She nodded back and walked past Ryan, placing a friendly hand on his shoulder as she headed off to her assignment.

Phil turned around and mentally deactivated the still open stargate, then started dialing a new 9 symbol address. There was a short pause after all nine were activated, during which he mentally entered the access code, then the new wormhole opened. Without another word he walked back through…

…and into the gate hub. He headed over to the control room and pulled up the map of Pegasus. Thousands of small blue holographic lights marked the planets with stargates. Some had thin blue lines between them, indicating active connections. Phil pulled up a second diagram and input some quick commands.

All of the dots in the galaxy winked out, save for six.

Those remaining few were the ones with active wormholes. Phil waited patiently for whoever was in transit to finish their journey, then when the connections ceased he deactivated those gates as well. When all the stargates in Pegasus were deactivated, including Atlantis's, Phil sent a brief text message to Janus:

_**Gates deactivated. You're good to go.**_

* * *

"Incoming message," McKay announced from the control room of the Terra.

"Just a moment," Janus replied as he made some final modifications. Both the Terra and the facility it contained were brand new, on an uninhabited planet in the Pegasus galaxy. Both he and Rodney had been sent to make sure it was operational before Atlantis needed it.

"Let's see what we've got," Janus said, walking over to the control panel and bringing up the message. "Hmmm, that was quicker than I expected."

"Now I know my Ancient isn't that good," Rodney mentioned, "but I assume that's the go signal."

"It is," Janus confirmed. "Begin power up."

McKay clapped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation. "Oh yeah, time for some payback," he said as he diverted power from the Terra's potentia into the device constructed beneath it. He watched as the power flowed into the startup matrix, bringing it up to critical levels.

"Ready," he announced when the level was to his liking.

"Activating," Janus said from a nearby console. Without a hitch the device came online, and the Alterran scientist ramped up the coverage to maximum level. "How do we look?"

"Power flow is steady," McKay reported.

"Any anomalies," Janus asked, making certain all was well.

"None," McKay confirmed.

Janus walked over to the communications terminal and typed out another message, which he then sent on to Atlantis:

_**Attero device activated. **_

* * *

Ryan received Janus's message in the holographic chamber, which was presently converted into their war room, then opened a comm channel to the control room.

"_Elizabeth, everything is set. Call in the fleet_."

"_Alright_," she answered hesitantly. "_I hope you know what you're doing_."

Ryan glanced at the Wraith fleet icons encircling the planet. "_We do_."

* * *

A few minutes later the _Nieruie_ and ten other brand new _Columnar_-class Alterran warships exited hyperspace on the edge of the Wraith jamming fields. They exited in four pairs and one threesome, spread out at separate points around the planet where the bulk of the Wraith fleets were massed. Still somewhat distant, the Columnars accelerated towards the fleets besieging Atlantis as they received targeting orders from Stevenson.

The four weapons pods on each of the Columnars opened silently, deploying their lox generator towers and revealing their two pesqua holds inside the main hull…one top and one bottom. All over the gray/white surface of the ships, small bumps rose up through the replicator block armor, pushing them aside like sand. The ninety nine plasma cannons deployed just high enough to open their lines of fire, but most of the batteries were still concealed within the moving armor.

The main weapons of the ships had been fully charged prior to arrival, but none of them fired, though they were already within range. Instead, all 11 ships launched two fast moving, yellow plumes of pesqua at the Wraith ships redeploying to engage them.

All the Columnars emptied their pesqua holds in one massive preemptive attack before they closed to plasma cannon range.

* * *

"_Alright Matt_," Ryan said through the chair communications system. "_Get us moving. Our ships won't last long against that amount of firepower._"

"_Here we go_," Matt announced to command group, including Andara, Sheppard, and O'Neill who were manning the other chairs. With a gentle rumble, Atlantis lifted off the ocean's surface and passed through the thick cloud layer overhead. When it emerged on the other side the city of the Ancients climbed with reckless abandon toward the developing battle overhead…and the largest cluster of Wraith ships besieging Lantea.


	4. Chapter 4

Inside the _Nieruie_, Bra'tac watched as Paul Stevenson fired their entire complement of pesqua at the 97 ship fleet growing larger ahead of them as both the Alterran threesome of Columnars and the Wraith ships moved towards each other aggressively. This particular subgroup of the Wraith siege fleet contained four Hive ships, 88 cruisers, two supply ships, and three of the rare Wraith battleships, each about half the length of a Hive ship and tapered into a long, pointed needle of a profile.

Bra'tac held the lox generators ready as he sat in the Captain's chair and waited for the Wraith ships to come within range. The lightning field generators were a medium distance weapon, capable of delivering a large punch with a 32 second recharge time, but limited to a range of only a few dekmas. The generators had to have a target to transfer the charge to, which meant there had to be a temporary connection between the two ships, unlike the directed energy weapon housed along the ship's central spine.

Paul would have control of that weapon, as soon as the pesqua reached their targets, but Bra'tac could have fired it already over the ever decreasing gap between ships, effectively sniping them from afar…however, the targeting data coming from Atlantis had given specific orders regarding each and every one of the 718 ships besieging Atlantis. Many of them had been tagged as 'no-kills.'

Bra'tac knew that meant the Wraith had Human captives aboard. Those ships were to be disabled, not destroyed, which meant specifically targeting engines and weapons without hitting anything critical. Fortunately, the pesqua had been designed for just such a task.

Bra'tac saw both their pesqua swarms, as well as those from their two sister ships, quickly jump across the gap and begin to swirl around a third of the Wraith vessels as the enemy fired their blue plasma cannons in an attempt to shoot the glowing yellow missiles down...and partially succeeded.

However, there were so many being fired that the Wraith couldn't shield themselves from the onslaught. Their biological armor caused the pesqua to use up an extra ordinate amount of energy to cut through, but their speed of penetration didn't diminish. They looped about through the cruisers, puncturing energy conduits and exposing the inner hull to space before their energy reserves neared depletion and they detonated inside, causing further damage. The targeted cruisers didn't explode in the fireball typical of metal built ships…instead they burned from the inside, turning into bright silhouettes of destruction against the blackness of space.

Thirty four of the cruisers were killed by the pesqua wave within the fleet Bra'tac was engaging. The four Hive ships had been hit too, but only their hyperdrives and some of their weapons batteries had been targeted, as well as some of their thrust-based engines. They were damaged, but not destroyed, and definitely not out of the fight. The supply ships had only their hyperdrives targeted, while the four battleships had been split two and two. Two destroyed, two wounded, based on which had Humans aboard and which did not.

With one quick blow, the 97 ship fleet had been pared down to 61, two of which really weren't combat ships at all. That left 59 Wraith ships against three Columnars…now without even a single pesqua in reserve.

"Stand ready," Bra'tac announced to his crew as they closed to within plasma cannon range. In addition to his Master Builder, he had Lorne, Zelenka, and Cadman along with six other Lanteans that had come from the Pegasus galaxy. A few Humans were also manning the secondary control chairs on the bridge, bringing the ship's command compliment to 17. Bra'tac had spent the past three days running them through battle simulations against the ship's computer, and though they were far from skilled gunners, they had gelled sufficiently to coordinate their strikes and learned where and when to shoot…something that the ship's computer alone couldn't do as well. Still, it had been given control of shield and armor adjustments, which it would make automatically in response to battle conditions.

"Mind your targets," Paul reminded them as they closed to within range.

"Fire at will," Bra'tac said, releasing everyone with a clear shot to fire.

The _Nieruie_ had her two sister ships trailing behind her in a single file line, so as to maximize their fields of fire as they dove into the sea of the Wraith ships. Their forward arcs were momentarily obscured, but Bra'tac's ship wasn't. The few plasma cannons on the front of the ship opened fire on the swiftly moving cruisers that had jumped out ahead of the limping Hive ships while Paul fired the ship's main weapon.

On the relatively flat front end of the Columnar was a small, half sphere in the center of the circular silhouette. It crackled with energy before spitting out a thin beam of brilliant green energy at one of the approaching cruisers. The beam was about the width of a puddle jumper and lasted .73 seconds, which accounted for only 11% of the weapon's charge. Two seconds after firing, the emitter sphere crackled with energy again as Paul readied the ship to fire another low power shot.

The first green lance hit the prow of the targeted cruiser and cored a shaft the entire length of the ship, then impacted a second cruiser behind it in the aft quarter, also cutting through its dense armor and exiting out the far side, where it winged a third cruiser behind it.

Meanwhile, the _Kilosei_, on the _Nieruie_'s starboard side, fired her main weapon at full power…not at the fleet in front of them, but at the secondary fleet of 32 ships approaching from their flank.

The _Kilosei_'s emitter crackled with small arcs of green lightning before firing off an identical cutting beam at the lone battleship in the second fleet…one that had been tagged as a 'kill' by Atlantis, meaning no humans onboard.

The beam continued to fire for more than a second…which stretched into two seconds, then two and a half. At 2.7 seconds the beam didn't abate…instead a large pulse of equally green energy blasted out from the columnar and traveled along the beam, which continued to fire for a total duration of 4.8 seconds. Designed as a shield penetrating weapon capable of pinpoint overloading uber-strong shields in order to get some amount of destructive energy through, the weapon worked equally well against the shield-less Wraith ships, even though it was a bit of overkill.

The battleship took the cutting mean on the port side, approximately halfway down her length, but at an angle. It cut into the ship and exited through her stern, running almost parallel to her length. When the pulse hit the ship it was already nearly cut in half, which resulted in the massive amount of energy entering through the long slash and burning/exploding away the formidable ship's interior.

This time the bio-matter construction DID explode, in a massive debris cloud that threw bits and pieces of the ship into the single Hive ship it had been escorting. The Hive lost several plasma cannons to the ballistic debris, but continued to rush forward at full speed to reinforce the fleet Bra'tac's Columnars were engaging.

Bra'tac noted the destruction of the battleship, along with the approach of two other smaller Wraith fleets. The combined ship count was about to crest 150…which meant the slugging match was about to begin.

Paul continued to spear Wraith cruisers with powered down shots from the _Nieruie_'s primary weapon until he'd completely depleted the capacitor. As it began its 10 minute 17 second recharge period Paul grabbed control of a number of plasma cannons from the computer and began racking up hits on the nearest Hive ship's weapon batteries, which had just begun to pound the Columnar's shields.

Finally the Wraith ships, now all firing an insane mass of blue plasma at the three diverging Alterran vessels, came within range of the lox generators. Bra'tac targeted two cruisers with the forward pair and unleashed two simultaneous orange lightning strikes against the ships.

The lightning jumped from one of the two targets into a second Wraith cruiser, bringing the hit count to three as the cruisers suffered small internal explosions and began to list out of control, unpowered. He noted with pride as his gunners threw their own wave of blue/green plasma into the damaged ships, targeting the holes in their armor and breaking them apart into debris fragments, completing the kills.

With his forward lox generators recharging, Bra'tac waited until the _Nieruie_ passed into the Wraith formation and his aft pair saw fresh targets. He knocked down two more of the pesky cruisers as he kept a close eye on the ship's shield status.

What had been fully charged shields when they entered the fight was now quickly draining down past 50%, with the ship's potentia pouring as much energy as it could back into the shields to recharge them. Despite the Alterra's superior technology, the sheer number of plasma cannons firing on the Columnars was too much for them to handle…yet every minute that passed by saw more and more of those enemy plasma cannons destroyed, thus decreasing the damage the enemy could throw their way.

But Bra'tac could do the math as easily as their computer. It wasn't a hard calculation to make…

The shields were going to go down, and go down soon. Perhaps within the next minute.

"_Paul, launch the drones_," the only Alterra with any real battle experience ordered.

"_They won't last long against that_," his brother noted.

"_They will buy time_," Bra'tac said, unloading the forward lox generators again.

Paul released his plasma cannons back into the computer's control and focused on the drones in the hangar bays. He activated the silvery cubes as the armor over the ship's aft face flowed toward the edges like waves in a pond, exposing several bay doors beneath. Three of them, including those of the main hangar, opened beneath the protection of the rapidly diminishing shields and released a swarm of the tiny cubes.

54 drones transformed as they left the ship under Paul's direction and headed for one of the three battleships pounding on the Columnar with its tightly packed cluster of forward plasma cannons, two of which had already been knocked out. Paul ordered them to attack those cannons then returned his attention to the ship's weapons, grabbing control of his own batteries back from the computer and targeting the rapidly diminishing number of cruisers. They were the easiest to kill and most of them had no humans onboard. Also, they were everywhere you looked. The _Nieruie_ was engulfed in the Wraith fleet, with even her sister ships nearly obscured from view by the motley blue ships.

The combat drones, with their targets clearly declared, headed straight towards the Wraith battleship and launched their small red orbs towards the ship's 26 forward plasma cannons, four of which had now been disabled. Smaller in size than those on a hive ship by about 40%, the sheer number of them in the same firing arc made for an extremely dangerous torrent of plasma within a small area of impact. Though these ships were rare within the Wraith fleet, their battle prowess had resulted in the capture of several Lantean warships 10,000 years ago that had underestimated how much concentrated firepower they could deliver on target…and right now they were wreaking havoc with the Columnars shields.

Those forward plasma cannons were shielded by armor, with their destructive blue energy traveling down an interior conduit before it was released into space…which meant the only direct path to the cannons themselves was down the barrel of their weapons.

The drones couldn't target from that direction, so instead they began chewing into the armor over the cannons, along with sporadic fire from the Columnar's much stronger plasma cannons. The damage the drones added was minor, but not insignificant…which apparently the Wraith took note of. They didn't redirect any of their ship to ship weapons against the drones. No, they needed those to pound down the weakening shields of the Columnars. Their technology could read enemy shield strength well enough, and they knew that despite the grievous losses they were suffering they were about to get through their enemy's shields, so instead of wasting their big guns against the drones the now 7 Hive ships engaged in the fight opened their operational hangar bays and loosed a swarm of darts into the mix.

The darts headed away from the battle in a big arc around the circumference of the fur ball in order to avoid the mass of plasma fire being exchanged between the big ships, which had been the reason they weren't launched earlier. Once they found a relatively clear opening, they poured through it and in towards the battleship under attack, as well as a trio of cruisers that the drones from another Columnar were attacking.

The Wraith darts opened fire on the slowly circling drones a few seconds before the _Nieruie_'s shields collapsed.

* * *

When Atlantis took off from Lantea's surface it had a choice to make. There were 18 Wraith fleets spaced around the planet and 5 groups of friendly ships engaging them at different places. The Wraith fleets were converging, and very soon the number of enemy ships was going to overpower the Columnars. There were three enemy fleets closest overhead, but the largest fleet was just a bit farther off westward, which was being engaged by the lone threesome of Alterran Columnars.

However, just as Atlantis passed out of the planet's atmosphere, it became clear that the major hot zone was not Bra'tac's battle, but Bret and Teyla's escalating battle as four smaller Wraith fleets combined into a 253 ship swarm…which was quickly pared down to 211 by the pesqua attack, but that still left the two Columnars more outgunned than the rest of the fleet, so Atlantis veered west and moved to join the battle just heating up some distance away.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait to get inside Wraith weapons range before attacking. The city's Joktala were able to open fire two minutes prior to their arrival and began sniping Wraith ships from range, starting with a lone battleship that fortunately didn't have any humans aboard.

Unfortunately the 9 Hive ships did, and they couldn't be taken out so easily, nor could their cannons or hyperdrives be targeted from this range. Matt did his best to take out as many cruisers as he could, in addition to the one battleship kill, as Atlantis rushed towards the battle.

Unfortunately Bret's Columnar, the _Ransaa_, lost shields just before Atlantis came within lox range, which Andara promptly put to use against the nearest Wraith cruisers. Meanwhile Sheppard launched small waves of Pesqua, targeting the hyperdrives on the 'no-kill' targets that had been missed in the initial attack, as well as the big batteries on the Hive ships.

That accounted for the bulk of Atlantis's weaponry, but there were still a small number of point defense weapons spaced around Atlantis's many towers and the edges of the pylons, which fell to O'Neill's control. Not as powerful as the plasma cannons on the Columnars, these neutron beams were in fact particle weapons that chucked a slurry of energy and particles in short spurts at targets with similar range limitations to the lox generators…yet the recharge time on the neutron beams was nil, which meant O'Neill had some very fast firing 'squirt guns' at his disposal…with pinpoint accuracy.

As the _Ransaa_'s replicator armor began to blow away like dirt from numerous small plasma impacts, it fired the last of its primary weapon's charge and holed a nearby cruiser, cutting all return fire from it. The Columnar maneuvered up alongside the cruiser to gain some cover, but seeing as how the Alterran ship was nearly half the length of a Hive ship, the cruiser didn't provide much in the way of a barrier…that was, until the _Ransaa_'s tractor beams snagged another half/dead cruiser and moved it and several more pieces of debris into blocking positions around the ship.

The Wraith fired between the gaps though, but several of their favorite targets became obscured, allowing the ship's computer some time to shift replicator cells from the top layers of other portions of the ship across the surface of the hull to the heavily damaged areas of the armor and reinforce them. The 'sand' that was being blown away from the ship was refilling itself in the craters as the overall thickness of the ship's armor was gradually decreasing.

After twenty seconds of pounding, the _Ransaa_'s shields came back up, minimally recharged within the ship and redeploying over the surface. The replicator armor smoothed out beneath them just in time to see the shields go down again, and the Wraith began to pot mark the now thinner sand-like armor all over again.

* * *

All across space a flurry of action raged out of control. There were too many ships and too much weapons fire to keep track of, and within minutes nearly half the Wraith fleet was destroyed, but all of the Columnars' shields had gone down and they were taking damage to their armor, but as of yet none of the enemy's weapons had managed to touch the true hull beneath the replicator blocks…though some shots had come dangerously close.

Three of the 18 Wraith fleets positioned at odd points along the perimeter of their siege line, and a long way from the Alterran ships, had time to study the battle before they could close the distance and join the fight…and in those few minutes they watched with horror as the battle unfolded.

Despite losing shields, the Ancient ships just wouldn't die, and they were tearing up their fellow Wraith with alarming efficiency. They calculated that once they joined the battle they would have enough firepower to finish off the elongated enemy ships, but only at great cost to themselves.

However, they noted Atlantis's rise to orbit and knew that with the loss of so many ships and the spread out nature of the battlefield that they wouldn't have the necessary firepower to contend with the flying city's shields, not to mention it's formidable firepower. Seeing the writing on the wall, so to speak, the three outlying fleets began to slow their approach and power down their siege generators.

* * *

In Atlantis's war room Ryan watched the battle unfold with a critical eye. He knew they were pressing close to the limits of the Columnars, but if they could hold out just a little longer the Wraith's numerical edge would diminish enough that they could sustain renewed shields…at which time any hope the Wraith had for victory would be over.

When the three groups of Wraith ships began to break off, Ryan tagged the location of the ships with humans onboard as priority one targets notified Sheppard.

"_I see them_," John said after the new targeting data got to him. They were a long ways away, but they couldn't jump to hyperspace just yet. They had to power down their own jamming fields, as well as get beyond the range of the other Hive ships' generators, who as of yet hadn't bothered to power them down.

Sheppard launched another batch of pesqua, which split into three smaller groups and jetted off towards the fleeing Wraith. He let them go on their merry way while he launched more against closer targets. When the traveling pesqua got closer he'd reassume control, but for right now there were two Columnars that needed assistance in a bad way…one of which was about to be rammed by a cruiser…

* * *

"_Jereior, deflect that ship!_" Teyla yelled at her ship's computer as she adjusted the helm controls to try and create a more favorable angle of impact when the kamikaze Wraith cruiser hit their ship. It was approaching at considerable speed from the outside of the Wraith formation, and without their shields it could do a significant amount of damage if it made contact. At the least they had to slow its momentum down.

"Tractor beam generators 2 and 3 disabled," the ship's male persona said dispassionately. "Assuming attitude control to bring 5 and 6 into range," it said as Teyla's control was queried for release.

She mentally relinquished helm control and fired the closest plasma cannons at the approaching ship, chewing away at its otherwise undamaged exterior. Those cannons quickly passed out of site as the Columnar rolled over on its side to bring the starboard and less damaged side of the ship into view.

Three tractor beams pushed out at the Wraith cruiser and deflected its course slightly as the Columnar moved as well to avoid the impact…but was not wholly successful. The cruiser passed by quickly, clipping the starboard/aft weapons pod, sheering half of it off as the Wraith ship disintegrated upon impact. The _Jereior_ started to spin about from the impact, but the computer quickly nulled the list and began to pull replicator blocks from other parts of the ship over the surface to the partial weapons pod, covering it with a thin layer of protection so the Wraith didn't have too obvious of a target to tear into. Regardless, the lox generator in that pod had been destroyed by the impact, leaving the ship with only three remaining.

Those three had secondary shields covering them, which had yet to be breached, though with the main shields down and the armor thinning, several hull impacts had been scored by the Wraith, destroying 12 plasma cannons in addition to the two tractor beam generators.

The ship's main weapon was also under fire, and its secondary protective shield failed shortly after the kamikaze impact. Subsequent Wraith plasma fire destroyed the emitter, but thanks to the ship's design didn't cause a catastrophic feedback of power. The weapon's capacitor was sealed safely inside the ship's interior, and couldn't be reached without deep penetration into the hull.

The ship's shields came back up briefly for a third time, buying the ship four seconds of coverage and allowing a little more armor redistribution before failing again as Atlantis's bulk rose up from below and blocked Teyla's Columnar from a third of the remaining Wraith fleet, absorbing a good portion of their weapons fire in the process.

Inside the ship the shields began to recharge, even as two of the shield generators were destroyed as the armor protecting them was blow away by a pair of plasma cannons on a nearby Hive ship that had had all the rest of its weaponry disabled. However, even with two generators destroyed, the other 14 generators were sufficient to shield the ship, though at a slightly less efficient rate of power distribution.

Thank Bra'tac for insisting on redundancy in the Columnar design.

Forty seconds later, after taking half a dozen more hull penetrations, the _Jereior_ redeployed its shields for the last time. The Wraith fleet was thinned enough that the power flow from the ship's potentia was now equal to the rapidly diminishing plasma fire coming from the surviving Wraith ships. With its remaining weapon systems, it helped Atlantis and its sister ship clean up the rest of the enemy ships as the three disengaged Wraith fleets made their jump to hyperspace…

* * *

Sheppard's pesqua reached the first of the three fleets just before they were clear to jump to hyperspace and knocked out the Hive ship's hyperdrive, as well as the single supply ship in the group and two cruisers that were displaying priority 'no-kill' tags. The few extra pesqua he had after accomplishing that task he used to 'poke out' two plasma cannons on the Hive. The rest of the cruiser hoard he didn't care about. They weren't going anywhere.

The second group of pesqua reached one of two Hive ships, knocking out its hyperdrive just as its twin, less than four dekmas away jumped to hyperspace along with its 35 cruiser escort…

…and disintegrated all 36 ships as they tried to enter unstable hyperspace windows, courtesy of Janus's Attero device.

Half of the cruisers of the first group broke ranks and made the fatal jump to hyperspace a few seconds earlier, leaving their wounded Hive ship behind with those ships loyal enough to their queen to face death alongside her. Ironically it was the traitors who died first, splashing their ships' debris across space in an almost pretty spray of blue sparks.

The third group detected the destruction of their fellow Wraith ships just in time to abort their own attempted escape. They held place, not knowing what to do as John's third group of pesqua reached them and disabled their Hive ships' hyperdrives, along with three cruisers and another supply ship. Quickly deducing their limited options, they burned for high orbit, hoping to run away elsewhere in the system…though they had nowhere to go.

When the revelation of the reactivated Attero device crossed over the Wraith hive mind to all their ships, they reacted in one of two ways.

Some scattered, running away from the planet in random directions, no two ships on the same heading…while the rest turned on the remaining Columnars and began making suicide runs. The Hive ships that hadn't released their darts did so now and added them to the kamikaze groups.

Four Columnars took hits, the worst of them being the _Nieruie_. Two cruisers hit her prow, tearing off the front end of the ship where her tractor beam 'buffers,' designed specifically to counter this type of attack, had been knocked out. Her primary weapon was destroyed, and the first of the two cruisers imbedded itself in the Columnar's hull. The forward third of the cruiser disappeared inside, with the back half sticking out at an ugly angle.

The other cruiser deflected off the front end, tearing a wicked gash in the top edge of the prow. It careened out of control for a few seconds before an orange lightning bolt finished it off from one of the _Nieruie_'s sister ships. All the other suicide runs were successfully deflected, either by the targeted ship or with help from their escorts. Bra'tac's suggestion for pairing the ships up had paid off in several ways during the battle. Ryan was truly glad to have his battle experience added to the Alterra's talent pool. In fact, he was probably the most knowledgeable battlefield commander that the Alterra had had since the Qizzic wars.

Still in the war room, Ryan watched the Wraith ships scatter away from Lantea and the butt-whipping they'd just given them, but the battle was far from over, and he didn't just mean the disabled ships still showing weapons fire that even now Atlantis and the Columnars were 'declawing.' No, a whole other angle to this battle was about to begin. To that end he chose one of the Hive ships that had her realspace engines disabled as well as her hyperdrive.

Ryan contacted his ships and got status reports on their damage. All of them were still mobile and partially operational, even the _Nieruie_, which meant the next part of their battle plan could begin.

With a look at the holographic map of the rapidly expanding battlefield Ryan mentally tagged the chosen hive ship and assigned one of the less damaged Columnars to watch over it and make sure that it didn't regrow its damaged systems as the Alterra and their allies boarded the ship to rescue the Wraith's food stores...


	5. Chapter 5

A cloaked puddle jumper flew into the cavernous hangar bay of the 1st Wraith Hive ship that'd been targeted for boarding. Fortunately the Wraith ship didn't have doors obstructing entry, instead they had an atmospheric containment field partway through the maze of twists and turns separating their hangar from the cold of space.

Mike Stevenson piloted the navicula porta through the entry corridor with ease, then hovered in place for a moment while he searched for the best landing zone. Off on the side were several doors leading to the interior of the Hive with dart niches in the walls above them. On the other side was a much larger landing platform, with the interior doors farther away. Two of the Wraith's small transports were sitting side by side in the center, but the platform could easily have held a dozen more along with a slew of darts.

Mike chose one of the empty smaller platforms and flew towards it. When he arrived he tilted the jumper's nose up until he was looking at the 'ceiling' above him, with numerous darts nestled against the walls. He watched his distance reading closely and lowered the jumper aft-first towards the ground.

When he was within a meter he detached the special add-on and felt the jumper lighten as well as heard a muffled 'thump' as it hit the deck. He leveled out the jumper and landed beside what looked like the bottle half of a broken beer bottle. The base was circular, but on one side there was a bit of a rim rising up, which matched the angular cut on the back of the puddle jumper. This provided a small bit of cover along the back side of the mobile ring platform that was now visible outside the jumper's cloaking device.

The back door of the jumper lowered and three Alterrans walked out wearing personal cloaking devices of their own. Once clear, Mike lifted off again and moved away to provide support should any darts redirect themselves to the platform. He had a dozen pesqua and a small energy weapon in the front of the jumper to work with, as well as the element of surprise so long as he stayed cloaked.

All of the Alterrans lugged a heavy backpack beneath their cloaks as they spread out, two of them to flank the entrance and catwalks, and the third to the rings where he deposited his pack on the ground and began to rearrange its components. Nate Stevenson unpacked the mobile shield from its compact form and attached it to the matching niche in the ring platform. It slid into place smoothly, then activated with a thin bubble-like shield covering both the ring platform and a few meters of perimeter around it.

Nate looked up as he heard the telltale sound of pesqua firing just in time to see a Wraith dart explode as it crossed the massive hangar bay towards them. A moment after the explosion he saw two other darts redirecting as well as dozens more powering up as a buzz-like Wraith alarm sounded throughout the ship.

Nate, still cloaked, keyed his wrist-bound communicator as the other two flying darts ate pesqua as well. "We've got darts moving, but the rings are secure. Start sending them over."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the ring platform activated and the concentric bars leapt up from the ground and materialized five tightly packed soldiers hoisting heavy weapons. The men stepped off the platform and took a knee around the edges, but still within the cover of the shield, as they brought their mini-pesqua launchers to their shoulders in preparation for more incoming darts.

The rings activated again and deposited a fully armored Ronon, Kiryk, and three other runners that the Setidan had rescued and recruited. They stepped off the platform and moved outside the shield, where they waited for the rest of what the ground troops had come to call the 'bad-ass squad' to ring in. Three more rescued runners materialized along with Ford, who had temporarily joined the elite squad in lieu of his more recent captaining duties. Ronon's personal replicator Ares materialized as well, and the five additional troops quickly joined up with the others, leaving the rings clear for more of the 'conventional' troops to arrive.

"Ares, get the door," Ronon ordered as the group jogged across the pad towards the interior entrance. The replicator sprinted ahead of them and inserted its 'hand' into the door controls, using its nanite construction to hack the biological mechanism.

The doors split apart, revealing an empty hall with the sound of approaching foot strikes echoing through the slightly misty interior. Ronon motioned Kiryk forward.

The man nodded and led the way inside, Ancient-designed shotgun in hand. He held close to one side of the wall as his previously tan camouflaged armor slowly adjusted its tint towards the motley bluish color of the Hive's interior. He and the rest of the strike force had flexible, yet full armor covering their bodies, including a force field faceplate on their helmets. If the Wraith managed to chuck them out an airlock the same way they'd dealt with Sheppard's replicators three years ago, they'd be able to survive in the vacuum of space for a short period of time…hopefully long enough to be picked up by jumper or beamed in, assuming they were outside the range of the Wraith's beaming countermeasures.

Ronon worked his way up the other side of the hall as he heard more of his troops ringing in behind them. The Commander of the Lantean troops kept close to the wall to give those behind him a clear shot when the approaching Wraith came within view in what should be only a few more steps…

Ronon fired his heavy pistol as the first Wraith shadow appeared, catching the soldier-class bug in the shoulder, spinning it around and down to the ground. Beside him Kiryk fired a much bigger red energy blast into the chest of the second Wraith to appear, lifting it off its feet and propelling it backwards into the large group of Wraith that were beginning to cluster around the corner. The rest that had come within view took shots from Ronon's men, but the Wraith hesitated from charging forward and instead ducked back behind the cover of the curving corridor, popping out sporadically to return fire with their stunners.

One of Ronon's men took a hit, but his armor's shield absorbed the blast easily. Behind him, Ford readied himself and waited for Ronon's wrist-flick signaling him forward. Aiden took off running towards the Wraith and literally threw himself at them…

Ronon heard weapons fire as he jogged in formation behind the seemingly kamikaze Ford, but he knew the man's armor and shields would protect him from several stunner shots before he went down, and even then his enzyme would insulate him from one or two more.

Kiryk shot one of the downed Wraith that had regenerated and was beginning to rise again in the head with another very powerful 'shotgun' blast, splattering the wall with blue brains as Ronon pulled around the corner and began taking very careful shots over Ford's head as he fought the Wraith hand to hand. There were easily thirty of the suckers packed into the narrow hall, most of whom didn't have a clear shot at Ford.

_Tenacious_, Ronon thought of Ford as he shot another one that Aiden knocked back towards them. It seems as if he was going to hand them back to the rest of the bad-ass squad one by one when Ford took a hit to his shields that wasn't a stunner.

One of the Wraith held a small pistol that'd fired a green bolt of energy. Ronon had seen this weapon before, and knew it was a potent killer designed to take down replicators. Ford's shields couldn't hold up against much of that.

Apparently Aiden realized that as well, and took the weapon out of the Wraith's hands, breaking its wrist in the process.

"Down!" Ronon yelled.

Ford dropped to his knees.

Ronon and his men peppered the Wraith with their varied weapons, mowing them down row by row with some sporadic weapons fire returning their way. Ronon took one of the green bolts to the shoulder, but his shields held and he kept on firing as his earpiece activated.

"Pull back!" Ryan's voice ordered, being relaying to each and every member of the assault team via an override command. "The Hive ship's power cores are overloading. The ship will blow in less than two minutes. Evac now!"

"Go!" Ronon groaned as his men began to retreat. He covered Ford as he scampered back, shieldless as his armor took a stun blast, with part of it soaking through. Aiden shrugged it off and passed back through Ronon and Kiryk's line. They fired a few more volleys into the mass of approaching Wraith as they climbed over the stack of corpses…some of which were getting up on their own…then retreated back to the ring platform with the rest of their men.

When they got there, there was a small line waiting for transit as well as a decloaking jumper landing beside them as the mini-pesqua launchers spat wave after wave of small glowing missiles at the Wraith darts massing in the hangar that were peppering the protective shields over both the rings and the decloaked jumper.

"Get inside the jumper," Ronon heard Teyla's voice say, seemingly from nowhere as he received an invisible push from behind towards the lowering ramp of the ship.

"Sixty seconds to detonation," Ryan's voice noted in all of their earpieces.

Just as Ronon was about to run up into the jumper he saw a wave of normal-sized pesqua enter the hangar bay from the entry corridor and swarm about inside. He heard the darts explode and fall from inside the jumper as he grabbed a seat, smashing his armored bulk up against the wall to try and make room for everyone else. The cockpit was already full of other runners and Ford, while Kiryk and the rest squeezed into the back along with three Alterrans in liquid armor appearing out of nowhere.

The ship began to lift off even as the hatch was closing and Mike moved them out of the hangar bay at breakneck speed. Behind them the last of the troops, the mini-pesqua launchers, ringed out of the Hive back to the safety of Atlantis sitting a few kilometers away.

The Hive ship's generators detonated before the jumper was past the atmospheric shield, but fortunately there was plenty of hull between them and the explosion, which delayed the wave of destructive plasma long enough for them to build up speed and zip out of the entry conduit before the blast overwhelmed them.

Ronon bucked in his seat as part of the explosion rocked the jumper as it caught up with them, but its shields held up to the quickly dissipating explosion. Those in the cockpit could see both Atlantis's shields and those of the flanking Columnar light up with impacts of both debris and plasma without incident.

"What now?" Ronon asked Teyla, who was squeezed against his chest.

Her facial armor, which looked like a liquid mask of silver, retracted and she pulled her chin away from his now grayish armor, looking up at his helmet with fire in her eyes.

"It seems we're going to have to disable their self-destruct before we board the next Hive."

"How do we do that?"

"We'll come up with something," Teyla said confidently.

* * *

"Well, anyone have any bright ideas?" Sheppard asked the small group of Alterrans in Atlantis's war room.

"We have to disable their ability to self detonate before they detect us," Matt pointed out in English, for O'Neill's sake. He'd only just begun the most basic of neural downloads.

"Can we not board the Hive ships under cloak and disable the devices from the inside?" Teyla asked.

"That might be possible," Andara commented. "But there won't be a clear access route from the hangars to the power core. That's where you have to disable their command interface so they can't overload their generators."

"So they don't actually have a self destruct onboard?" Sheppard clarified.

"No," Andara confirmed.

"Why can't we just shoot them out?" O'Neill commented, shrugging. He wasn't really sure if he was supposed to speak or not.

"Then we would run the risk of detonating the power core ourselves," Andara explained sweetly.

Sheppard's eyes suddenly widened with an idea. "How about we shoot something else?"

Andara tilted her head to the side in consideration. "Meaning what?"

"They don't have to be at the core to detonate it, right?" Sheppard asked.

"I don't think so," Andara said, frowning. "They can probably do so from any priority control interface. Most likely on the bridge or the Queen's chamber."

"Cut the command lines," Ryan interrupted as he sensed Sheppard's line of thought.

"There's more than just one," Andara reminded them. "And they're easy to regrow. Even if we took them all out, it'd only buy us a few minutes."

Matt rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We need to pirate the control clusters…take control of the ship's operating system rather than destroy the command lines."

"We would still have to be on the inside, correct?" Teyla asked.

"Yeah, but I think we can pull off a stealth infiltration," Matt answered. "Andara, do you think we can find a way to jam their ship to ship communications?"

"Not unless you can spare a few months," she responded. "Telepathic communications are notoriously difficult to interfere with…unless you have the same transmitting capability."

"Use theirs," O'Neill suggested.

Sheppard nodded his agreement. "Take one of their ships, then use their own equipment to jam the others." He glanced at Andara. "Could you do that?"

She chewed on her lip, thinking hard. "The Wraith use boosters to connect their natural telepathic network over distances. I should be able to work with that, but not the individual abilities of each Wraith. We would have to keep the ships apart from each other."

"Fortunately they already are," Matt added. "And getting farther apart by the hour. Before long our fleet is going to have trouble keeping their critical systems from regenerating."

"Would a cruiser be sufficient?" Teyla asked Andara.

"It should be," the slightly taller Alterra answered.

"Yeah, but the cruiser's hangar bays have sealed doors," Matt disagreed. "You can't just fly inside. And if we blow the doors they'll be onto us_._"

"Docking hatch?" O'Neill asked, getting a bit more confident within the group.

"We'd still have to cut through," Matt said.

O'Neill got a quizzical look on his face. "Do you think one dro… pesqua would be enough for them to blow themselves up over?"

"Probably not," Ryan commented.

"Use its hole," O'Neill offered.

Ryan and Matt, the only two Stevensons in the room, looked at each other with almost perfect synchronicity.

"Big enough for a person?" Teyla asked.

"The hole would reseal," Andara warned, "but not immediately with armor. Just a thin layer to regain atmospheric integrity."

Ryan smiled at something he was mentally discussing with his clone. "I think we have a plan…" he announced to the others.

* * *

47 Wraith cruisers had survived the initial battle, 42 of which were hunted down and destroyed by the Columnars, leaving 5 remaining due to the fact that they had Humans onboard. One of those five had limped away from Lantea on partially regrown engines and was a good three hours away from the planet when one of the Columnars made a brief hyperspace jump to close the distance.

The armor on the back end of the Columnar moved aside, revealing the hangar bays. Three jumpers flew out, one of which immediately cloaked, and headed for the still somewhat distant cruiser. When they got halfway there the cruiser began firing a single plasma cannon in their general direction…all others on the ship had been destroy and as of yet not fully regrown.

The cruiser would have released darts to intercept the jumpers, had it had any to begin with. Operating on only a skeleton crew, most cruisers in the Wraith fleet were essentially empty, including their dart bays. Still, their choosing to fire back at the approaching enemy ships was a good sign…meaning they weren't ready to blow themselves up just yet.

The two visible jumpers veered away from each other and approached the cruiser from different angles. Each of them fired a single pesqua…a last minute addition to the plan.

One of the glowy missiles hit the operational plasma cannon but didn't immediately explode. It looped up once through the ship and came back down on the cannon, then detonated inside of it. The other pesqua hit the cruiser's remaining operational engine, completely disabling its movement. With those two targets destroyed, the pair of jumpers peeled off and headed back to the Columnar, seemingly content with further disabling the cruiser.

However, the third cloaked jumper moved up alongside one of the extra holes in the cruiser and deposited three small packages on the hull. Each of them had their own small cloaking devices so the cruiser's sensors wouldn't immediately detect their presence. The small, spider-like replicators walked across the surface of the ship and scurried down into the recently bored holes.

Still cloaked, they cut/pushed their way through the thin film already beginning to regenerate over the entry points as the cruiser's atmosphere began to replenish in the affected areas. The small damage done to the regenerating ship's tissue was written off as battle damage, given the mere seconds of time elapsed between the two occurrences and the myriad of power and control lines that had been severed by the pesqua and would continue to cause minor damage before they too resealed.

Now on the inside of the ship, the small cloaked spiders walked off to carry out their assigned tasks.

* * *

Mike and Teyla waited inside the cloaked jumper outside the Wraith cruiser's hangar bay door patiently. They knew it would take some time for the three crudely cloaked modified replicators to seize control of the ship's systems and block access to the power core. If at least one of them managed to accomplish that mission priority, the next step would be to open the hangar for the boarding party.

Right on cue the double doors covering the hangar pulled apart revealing a pocketed alcove within the Wraith ship. Mike moved the jumper through quickly, not knowing how long the replicators could maintain control. Once they passed through the opening the two Alterrans knew they now had the advantage…even if the replicators were now destroyed.

The cloaked jumper landed on a small pad next to an access door that led up the spine of the ship. Mike stayed in the cockpit and brought up a lifesigns display of the ship's interior. He modified the sensors and three small square blips were added…with most of the Wraith nearby.

"_Get going_," Mike told her. "_I'll direct you from here_," he said as one of the replicator signals vanished. The Wraith around it dispersed and the hangar bay doors began to close, sealing them in.

Teyla saw it too and powered up her liquid armor. The forearm gauntlets she wore melted and spread the silvery barrier across her entire body. Her face was obscured with a liquid sheen, but from the inside she could still see clearly. She walked to the back of the ship as Mike lowered the access hatch. Teyla disappeared beneath her own cloak just before she walked out of the ship.

Mike turned back to the display and saw another blip activate…Teyla's secure homing beacon. The Wraith didn't have the technology to pick up the elusive signal, so the Alterrans felt secure using it to coordinate their stealthed infiltration teams. He watched as she quickly crossed the pad and went to work on the door controls. Either hacking the controls with one of the other gadgets she was carrying or prying them open by force, Teyla got through the door within 20 seconds and moved through the ship's interior at a very fast run.

"_Left_," Mike told her through their comlink. "_Three doors down. Four Wraith inside_," he said as another replicator signal vanished.

The four Wraith split up, with two leaving the room just as Teyla got to them. On the display screen in front of him he saw Teyla's signal intensify just before the two Wraith icons winked out. A few seconds later the two inside were gone as well.

"_Nine to go_," Mike informed her. "_Next closest is two levels above you. There should be an access shaft at the end of the hall on the right_."

* * *

After the cruiser had been secured and the one surviving replicator was retrieved, Andara ringed over to the mobile platform they'd landed in the hangar bay. She immediately went to work on the ship's systems, and within three hours had reengineered the cruiser's telepathic communications' booster to produce the equivalent of 'white noise,' effectively jamming their inter-ship communications everywhere within the star system.

With their inability to inform each other of what was happening onboard their ships, Mike flew Teyla, Sheppard, and three other Stevensons onto the next targeted Hive ship and slipped them aboard unnoticed. The 5 cloaked Alterrans split up after breaching the door to the interior, each of them carrying a heavy backpack, as they quietly made their way to key control clusters that relayed ships' commands and provided autonomic functions for the 'living' ship.

When Sheppard reached his first cluster he placed a small block of replicator nanites on the door controls. They absorbed into the material, then created a small bump on the exterior. John pressed the bump and the door opened.

He glanced around, making sure no Wraith were in sight, then pressed a small side ridge, commanding the block to release from the door. He stepped through into the cluster chamber and reattached the block on the opposite side. When the bump reappeared he pressed it, closing the door and sealing it off from any other commands, which the replicator nanites would block.

Sheppard decloaked and pulled off his backpack. Inside it were four large cubes of black material. Three had identical symbols engraved onto the surface, but the fourth had a separate design of the same carvings.

John pulled out the oddball and activated the dormant replicator.

The nanite cube expanded in volume until it resolved into the form of a thin female, equal in height with Sheppard.

"_Awaiting instructions_," it said, standing perfectly still.

"_Interface with the control cluster and disable any new commands. Keep the ship operating as is. And see if you can tap into their power control systems from here. Priority goes to keeping the reactor from overloading_," Sheppard ordered in Lingara.

The replicator engineer didn't ask any questions or respond in any way. It simply walked over to the biological node suspended between floor and ceiling and reached its hand into it, distributing nanites throughout the cluster. Sheppard saw her already petite form lose density as the replicator had to redistribute its limited supply of nanites up and into the node, but it retained its female persona and dimensions.

"_Standing by_," it announced a few seconds later. "_No reactor access from this location_."

John pulled out the other three cubes and activated the combat model replicators. Three more females materialized wearing trim black uniforms.

"_Stay here and guard this cluster at all costs_," Sheppard ordered as he moved back towards the door. He cloaked, then pressed the button to open it.

"_Keep the door closed until otherwise ordered_," he said from outside the cluster chamber. The nearest of the female guards walked over and sealed the door behind him.

"_Cluster secure_," Sheppard reported over his comlink.

* * *

After all five of the targeted clusters were locked down another jumper returned with a ring platform and the Lantean army began boarding the Hive ship with Ronon's bad-ass squad leading the way. Meanwhile the five Alterrans already onboard ship began loosing their own carnage within the ship.

Sheppard headed back to the hangar bay to help Ronon by attacking the Wraith from behind as they attempted to repel the superiorly armed and armored intruders. Teyla, however, made her way through the ship under cloak, not attacking any of the Wraith she passed by until she got to the Queen's chamber.

She quickly killed the two guards outside with headshots from her wristbound energy weapons. Two more shots on each for good measure and she began working on the door controls. With no more easy open replicator blocks she proceeded to cut the command lines between the door controls and the retraction mechanism… then she forced the door open by hand.

Her personal shields took two hits by stunners when the doors cracked open, prompting her to jump back out of the way. She heard more footsteps approaching the Queen's chamber from outside and quickly reactivated her cloaking device. She squeezed her way through the door in the face of four Wraith guards waiting a few meters back from the door. Once through she circled around behind them and shot two of them in the back of the head, one from each wrist.

When she did that her cloak automatically dropped, and the other two Wraith turned on her silvery form. They raised their stun rifles at her, but she batted one away with her right arm and absorbed the blast from the second with her shields.

She grabbed the second weapon and turned it away from her as she kicked the first Wraith in the gut and knocked it to the floor.

From behind she got hit with one of the potent non-stun Wraith pistols and saw her personal shield indicator drop by 27%. In response she spun around behind the one still standing Wraith and used its bulk to block any further shots.

That Wraith dropped dead to the ground as the male appearing from the shadows fired through the soldier. Teyla jumped to the side and fired a volley of green blasts back at him. He went down hard as more Wraith poured through the door, along with the one Wraith already in the room, standing back up from the kick Teyla gave it.

Using her enhanced Alterran muscles, she leapt up two meters into the air, firing wildly at the doorway as she arced towards the Wraith hoard at an angle. She dropped to the ground three meters in front of them and fired into their legs. Four of them stumbled and Teyla ran into the bunch, taking more stunner blasts on her shields…dropping them dangerously low.

Now forcing them to fight hand to hand, Teyla punched, kicked, and fired her wrist weapons at point blank range, whereas the Wraith's stun rifles weren't built for this close of combat. Teyla methodically fought her way through the Wraith guards, eventually ending up as 'king of the hill' on top a pile of dead bodies.

Some of those bodies began to stir again, so Teyla went around shooting those that were regenerating as she felt a subtle telepathic touch. It was so weak she didn't recognize it at first, but quickly realized it was the Queen attempting to access her mind.

Teyla fired two more blasts into the bodies on the floor then turned her attention to the blue-haired Wraith hiding in the shadows. Her mental domination would have been successful had one of the Lantean boarding parties reached her first, but to Teyla's much stronger Alterran mind the attempt to freeze her in place was almost laughable.

"That won't work on me," Teyla said in the common tongue as she corned the Queen.

The female Wraith snarled at her silvery image. "What are you?" she demanded.

"Your death," Teyla said, shooting her several times with only her right wrist weapon.

The Queen fell to the ground, but wasn't completely disabled. From somewhere on her body she pulled out a small version of the anti-replicator pistol and aimed it at Teyla.

Teyla's left hand rose up…and suddenly the Queen's arm froze in place, a few inches shy of reaching her line of fire. With her right hand Teyla fired several more blasts, including two to the head.

The Queen gasped one last time and fell dead at Teyla's feet.

The Alterran stood there for a moment, steadying her emotions, then she reactivated her cloaking device and left the Queen's chamber to help the boarding party clear out the rest of the ship.

* * *

It took over three weeks to board and capture the remaining Wraith ships scattered across the system. Ronon's bad-ass squad led the attack against every Hive ship, but he rotated the rest of his men, insuring that they didn't make mistakes due to fatigue. Of his 40,000 available troops, only 6,000 did he deem ready for heavy combat, and it was from those 6,000 he drew from to fill out his 500 man boarding parties.

Casualties had been light. Those few that died had done so mostly from their own mistakes. Those that stuck with Ronon's battle plan and didn't wander off alone into the Hive Ships in search of personal glory had fought well, putting their technological advantage to good use. En mass, the Wraith stood no chance against Ronon's heavily armored troops. Those that went down from stun blasts still had armor covering most of their bodies, making it difficult for the Wraith to feed on them even if they did have the chance during the melee. Most of those who'd died had fallen to the anti-replicator weapons that seemed to be scattered amongst the Wraith crew. The Lantean armor had protected them against a few shots, but eventually the powerful Wraith energy weapon would break through. Those teams that rotated properly and gave their shields a chance to recharge hadn't been affected. All in all Ronon's Lantean army had quite the victory to boast about.

Over 10,000 Humans had been rescued from the Wraith…included a few Wraith worshipers that had to be separated out and secured in different section of Atlantis. They'd undergo a Lantean review period where hopefully some of them could be 'deprogrammed' and integrated back into the Human communities. Those that didn't would eventually be exiled from Atlantis and all allied worlds…where they would have to deal with the rest of the Wraith in the galaxy when they came to cull them.

Once the battles were over the Alterrans split up again, each going back to their previous tasks. Andara stayed behind to study the captured Wraith ships that had been towed into orbit around Lantea for closer study. Each of them now had a ring platform aboard, so transit to and from Atlantis was convenient enough for her ongoing projects concerning Wraith technology. She was convinced that there was more to the Wraith than had previously been discovered, and she was intent on breaking down their technology and physiology until all had been revealed. The corpses of the Queens had taken her immediate interest, including two juveniles, which she felt might hold the key to part of the mystery. The Alterran biologist would be busy with work for months to come.

Phil, meanwhile, returned to Dracona and the Feriorla with Andara's absence. The race of Humans had become a steady ally in the galaxy and needed the leadership of the Alterra in much the same way that the Jaffa were benefitting from Bra'tac's leadership in Avalona. Though not as militant as the Jaffa, the Feriorla did boast an impressive population along with decent technical knowledge and skills. One day, Ryan hoped, they'd become a powerful, calming presence within that tumultuous galaxy…but for now they still needed a lot of help.

Teyla had left to assist the Traveler fleet in tracking down the remaining Wraith ships and installations within the galaxy. There had already been 11 located Hive Ships that had not participated in the siege of Atlantis, but they expected there to be many more hidden away within Pegasus. Based off of the numbers in the original Lantean/Wraith war, it was conceivable that the Wraith could have as many as 100 Hives still out there, not to mention their easy to construct cruisers and other auxiliary ships. Ryan knew that the Wraith wouldn't be suckered into another massive battle where they could be concentrated and destroyed, so now they'd have to hunt them down one by one, and with only 11 Columnars, some badly damaged at the moment, that was not going to be a quick endeavor…assuming of course they could actually find the Wraith ships.

After the battle at Lantea, Ryan had ordered Janus to deactivate the Attero device and had all the Pegasus gates reactivated. There were too many worlds out there that relied on stargate travel to survive...and he wasn't about to consign them to starvation in order to neutralize Wraith movements. Besides, with their ability to remote control the gates at will, it would be more of an advantage to the Alterrans/Lanteans/Humans to leave them turned on in the long run. To which end Ryan had summoned Ronon back from Yavin a week after the battle had ended.

"You wanted to see me?" Ronon asked as he stepped into the hologram room, which Ryan was still using to coordinate galaxy-wide operations against the Wraith. The locations of allied ships, mostly Travelers, were displayed on the hologram in the center of the room.

Ryan stepped down from the pedestal, but left the hologram turned on. He walked around the perimeter to meet Ronon who was standing just inside the doorway.

"I understand you've given Elizabeth a list of a thousand or so troops to be considered for promotion to Lantean based on their battle performance."

"Yeah," Ronon answered lazily. "Is there a problem with that?"

Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. "Why isn't your name on the list?"

"I've already been offered it."

"And declined," Ryan reminded him. "Why?"

Ronon shrugged. "Don't need it."

"But your men do?" Ryan countered.

"Look, I don't mean to brag, but I'm already as strong as the Lanteans, if not stronger. Most of my men aren't. They could use a bit more strength."

"It's more a matter of efficiency than strength," Ryan noted, "but on that note, don't you want to get stronger too?"

"I can do that with training," Ronon countered.

Ryan inclined his head, conceding the point. "You could, if you knew how."

Ronon's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying I don't know how to train?"

"Not for the big improvements, no," Ryan said evenly, sensing a bit of anger from the Setidan.

"Such as?" Ronon said, now crossing his arms over his chest.

"The more time you have to train, the stronger you can grow," Ryan explained. "One of the big improvements is giving yourself more time. For that, you need to train for efficiency…something you don't know how to do."

"And you know that exactly how?" Ronon said, his voice rising.

Ryan held up a hand. "Do you know why the Wraith made you a runner?"

Ronon's emotions seemed to pause. "Becket said my body had something in it that stopped the Wraith from feeding."

"Yes. There's a protein that blocks a key element in their feeding process. That's why I gave your men that inoculation, those that could tolerate it anyway. Lantean and Alterran physiologies are incompatible with the protein, and the more developed Humans can't take it either."

"All the more reason not to become Lantean," Ronon argued.

"Yes, you would lose that immunity," Ryan granted. "But that wasn't the only reason the Wraith made you a runner…or so I think. When you rescued the other runners, I had Matt run a comparison of your physiologies. You do all possess the protein, but you have something else as well."

"Like what?" Ronon asked, his curiosity quelling his rising ire.

"When we made your ancestors," Ryan began to explain as simply as he could, "it was with the intention that they'd develop the way we did, and over time become like us. When they got far enough along, the Repositories of Knowledge would take them the rest of the way to where we are now."

"You mean the head sucker?" Ronon asked.

Ryan smiled. "Yes, the head sucker. You heard about that from O'Neill?"

"Yeah, we were swapping war stories," Ronon said with a bit of respect. "He's been in a lot of battles."

"That he has," Ryan agreed. "Anyway, the whole idea was for you to become like us after we got killed by the plague. If we hadn't made you, none of us would exist. I started out the same as you, so did all the other Alterrans…even Janus started out as a Lantean."

"That's all good, but what does it have to do with me and the Wraith?" Ronon complained.

"You and the other runners are…let's just say you're an offshoot of the developmental path that my kind came through. You're evolving in a slightly different way, ahead of the other Humans. You're stronger, faster, and braver than the rest. I think that's why the Wraith hunted you when they couldn't feed on you. You provided them more of a challenge…more so than even the original Lanteans."

"Really," Ronon muttered.

"The transformation that I underwent changed me into an old-style Alterran in every way. The transformations into Lanteans only upgrade where you're at now, they don't change who you are. They won't take this…uniqueness…of yours and destroy it. They'll only enhance it."

"If we're already better than the Ancestors…" Ronon argued.

"In some ways," Ryan cautioned. "In a few ways, but you don't live as long because you're not very efficient."

Ronon shrugged. "Everyone dies sometime."

Ryan shook his head firmly. "No."

"No?" Ronon asked disbelievingly.

"No," Ryan confirmed. "What you call growing old is a myth. Your body breaks down because you're inefficient…which means inside you aren't very strong. You might have strong arms and legs, but the rest of you is weak. The training you do," Ryan emphasized by pointing at Ronon's large chest, "trains your arms and legs, not the inside."

"You're saying that if I trained my 'inside' I'd live forever?"

"Possibly," Ryan said lightly, "but you're at a serious disadvantage. Becoming a Lantean would stack the odds in your favor."

"But it's possible without the changes, right?" Ronon said, a bit of eagerness creeping into his voice.

"I wouldn't wager on it," Ryan cautioned, "but yes, it's possible."

"Then tell me how to train my inside," Ronon insisted, staring down at the shorter man.

Ryan was silent for a moment. "Wanna do things the hard way? Alright, I'll make you a deal. I'll give you the knowledge you need so you have at least a spitting chance of success, but when you fail you'll undergo the transformation to Lantean without complaint."

"_If_ I fail," Ronon underscored.

"If," Ryan echoed. "Agreed?"

"Agreed," Ronon said, shaking Ryan's hand.

"Alright, now that that's out of the way," Ryan said, turning back to the hologram. "I need your men to set up garrison units on a number of planets. We'll fix the stargates so they can only dial out, that way the Wraith can't come through on foot or in darts. They'll have to come by ship."

"And my men will signal for a warship when they come," Ronon said, anticipating the next part of the strategy.

Ryan nodded. "We'll have a Columnar there within half an hour. Your men will have to hold off any landing parties and darts until reinforcements arrive. Eventually we'll set up some small pesqua launchers on the surface, which the Lanteans in your army will have to man."

Ronon rubbed his goatee thoughtfully. "We're going to start taking away their feeding ground?"

Ryan smiled vindictively. "One world at a time."


End file.
